Prepare your wheels: Essential tyre checks for safe winter driving

Drivers should already check their garages and inspect their winter tyres, and those using all-season tyres should pay closer attention to them. Here's how to inspect them yourself and when to visit a workshop.

Let's start with the tyres lying in the garage, as it is much easier. You can inspect them from every angle if they are not mounted on the vehicle. It’s worth beginning with this.

If they are slightly "scratched" on the side or have a small piece of tread missing, there’s nothing to worry about. However, head to a tyre repair shop if you see any cuts, especially on the side. It's best to ask for the tyre to be repaired rather than asking if it's safe to drive. Then the shop will either refuse or repair the tyre, which means the damage does not affect safety. If you immediately ask for an assessment of the damage, the shop will be eager to suggest a replacement to earn more.

The inspection should also focus on the rubber. A tyre in good condition is one that does not have cracked rubber, especially visible on the shoulder and sidewalls, where the surface should be smooth. Next, check the production date. If the tyre is more than 5-6 years old, it isn’t suitable as a winter tyre anymore. Of course, legally you can use it, but it is not recommended.

What matters is the year you purchased the tyre. If it was manufactured in 2019 but installed on the vehicle in 2021, it should be treated as if it is 3-4 years old (depending on whether you installed it at the beginning or the end of the year). You can read more about tyre age in the text below.

Finally, there is the crucial matter of checking the tread depth. For winter tyres, a safe value is 4mm-5mm. New winter tyres generally have a tread depth of about 7mm-8mm.

Below 4mm, not only does the tyre’s ability to grip snow or slush decrease noticeably, but so does its ability to channel water away (therefore enhancing the so-called water dispersal), which is most abundant on roads during winter. When the tread is too shallow, the risk of aquaplaning significantly increases.

The tread should be checked for depth across the entire width of the tyre. It is often thinner at the edges, which is completely natural, but it should not be less than 2mm. In such a case, the tyre is useless.

It’s also worth emphasizing that you should check the tread depth of all tyres. Drivers very rarely rotate tyres, resulting in the rear tread being quite thick, while the front could be close to the safe limit. After two to three seasons, the difference can be approximately 1.6mm. This is not a sign of suspension problems.

Here things get a little more complicated in many aspects because you don’t keep all-season tyres in the garage; they’re on the car. This makes them harder to properly inspect. While there may be no issue from the outside, tyres are often cut from the inside. It’s worth either removing the wheels or going to a workshop.

My suggestion—remove the wheels, as you probably need to do so. This is about rotating the tyres, something many people don’t do. But before you decide, check the tread depth.

Unfortunately, there's a problem because while a tread depth of 4mm is quite good for summer tyres, it’s not necessarily so for winter tyres. If the tread is this deep on all-season tyres before winter, it’s time to consider replacing them. But what to do with them since they’re still suitable for summer?

Theoretically, you can leave them for summer and use them for another season. However, reinstalling such tyres somewhat contradicts the savings all seasons were meant to generate. You can read more about the drawbacks of all-season tyres in the text below.

Another issue is that all-season tyres perform worse in harsh winter conditions than typical winter tyres. So, the borderline should be 5mm instead of 4mm for winter usage.